Domaine de la Mordorée Reine des Bois Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2018 MG

Domaine de la Mordorée Reine des Bois Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2018 MG is a powerful Grenache-led red from the Rhône with dark fruit and cocoa in magnum format. Reine des Bois is the domaine’s darkest register in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. This 2018 magnum leans into black cherry, plum and cocoa with roasted savour. Vaccarèse sits in the blend with Grenache, Mourvèdre and Syrah, giving a small herbal edge to the plush fruit. It is dry, organic and firmly built.

About the Wine
This is the 2018 magnum of Reine des Bois, Domaine de la Mordorée’s top Châteauneuf-du-Pape red. The blend is led by Grenache, with Mourvèdre, Syrah and Vaccarèse adding darker spice and grip. The vineyards are farmed organically, and the cuvée speaks in ripe skins, soil warmth and an earthy southern Rhône depth. Their galets roulés, sandy clay and limestone give the wine a warm-stone feel that sits under the black fruit. Vaccarèse is the telling detail here. It brings a faint herbal snap to a cuvée built around ripe cherry and plum. After fermentation, the 2018 Reine des Bois spent 18 months in large French oak foudres. The large format oak marks the texture with a broad grain, and the cocoa and coffee tones stay close to the fruit. That élevage suits the magnum format, giving the wine a slow-moving feel in bottle and a settled frame around its black cherry core. The wine carries 15% alcohol in a dense frame, with tannins that feel dark, ripe and carefully packed. A roasted meat note threads through the finish beside black olive and cocoa powder.

Tasting Notes
The first pour opens with black cherry, purple raspberry and a darker plum note that feels especially ripe in this 2018 Reine des Bois magnum from Domaine de la Mordorée, with fruit skins lingering after the swirl. The palate is broad and muscular, with 15% alcohol woven into a dense core of fruit, polished tannin and the warm-stone feel of galets roulés after an hour in glass. Cocoa powder and coffee join roasted meat and black olive near the finish, giving the wine a savoury weight that reaches beyond the sweet-fruited profile many Châteauneuf drinkers expect. The 18 months in large French foudres show as a rounded grain, and the final echo carries dark chocolate, graphite-like dryness and a slow return of black cherry and plum. Drink 2025-2038.

Food Pairing
Serve this magnum with côte de boeuf, ribeye on the bone or lamb shoulder rubbed with rosemary and garlic, especially if the edges are charred hard over coals. For a regional plate, choose daube provençale with black olives and orange peel, a dish that mirrors the wine’s roasted meat note and keeps the southern Rhône feeling on the table. Game also fits the 2018 Reine des Bois, especially venison loin with juniper or wild boar ragù over fresh pasta and pan juices with real weight. Aged Comté or a firm sheep’s milk cheese picks up the cocoa powder texture and gives the plum fruit a savoury stage after a few years in magnum. Open the bottle ahead of the meal, then keep the glasses large enough for the coffee, black cherry and warm-stone notes to spread through the course.

Producer
Domaine de la Mordorée carries one of the most memorable names in the southern Rhône, taken from a local word for the woodcock, the bird behind the Reine des Bois name on this bottle; Reine des Bois translates as Queen of the Woods. The estate was founded in Tavel by the Delorme family in 1986, and its vineyards link that rosé stronghold with Lirac and Châteauneuf-du-Pape in a personal map of the southern Rhône across several appellations. La Reine des Bois is the domaine’s top-tier label, and the Châteauneuf-du-Pape version has earned its place through dark fruit, high concentration and a polished frame that suits long cellaring in magnum. Organic farming is central to the current domaine, with work across galets roulés, sandy clay and limestone giving the 2018 MG a clear connection to its Châteauneuf parcels before any cellar detail appears. One concrete Mordorée signature is the seriousness given to both rosé and red wine, with Tavel treated as an estate centre and a source of identity for the labels, vineyards and reputation. Reine des Bois feels tied to the estate’s bird imagery, with its forest name, its darker register and its confident place above the domaine’s other Châteauneuf-du-Pape bottlings in structure and ambition.

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